Matthew Carver
Polizei
Gallery One
Exhibition Info
During his travels, Canadian born Matthew Carver began to notice the increasingly militarized presence of local law enforcement at public gatherings and protests. Carver made note of this phenomena in Germany, Malaysia, England, China and Canada, and began to incorporate his observations into a series of large-scale paintings. These paintings resonate with front-page headlines ranging from the controversy over the G20 summit in Toronto to the democratic uprising in Tahrir Square in Cairo. In painting hyper-militarized figures the work infers both the Occupy movement as well as the recent student protests in Quebec, suggesting a commentary about the ongoing struggle for social justice and democracy against forces representing a seemingly omnipresent and unaccountable authority.
Photography: Robert McNair
Artist Biography
Matthew Carver (Canada, 1968) has spent much of the last decade living and working abroad in the United Kingdom, Germany and Southeast Asia. He received his MFA with Distinction at the Chelsea College of Art and Design and his BFA Honours from York University. His paintings are composed using complex perspectival techniques, including the perceptual distortions associated with anamorphism and incorporate digital technologies such as Photoshop. His work has been exhibited in numerous galleries and international art fairs, including the 12th Cairo Biennale. His paintings are in the collections of the RBC Financial Group, Ontario Securities Commission and Museum London as well as in several prominent private collections including the Saatchi Collection, London; Samawi Collection, Dubia; and Taittinger Collection, Switzerland. Matthew Carver is represented by Galerie Caprice Horn in Berlin, Taksu Gallery in Singapore and Christopher Cutts Gallery in Toronto.